Vehicle safety seats or “car seats” are commonly used to protect infants and young children when traveling in motor vehicles. Many car seats include a base component that is semi-permanently mounted to the passenger seat of the vehicle using the vehicle's standard seatbelt or a standard child seat Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system provided in many vehicles, and a carrier component that releasably mounts to the base. The carrier allows the parent or caregiver to more easily transport the child to and from the vehicle, and provides a comfortable and portable resting place for the child.
Child safety seats typically include a harness system having a crotch strap with a female releasable coupling or buckle, and a pair of shoulder straps having male coupling elements for detachable connection to the buckle of the crotch strap. The child is securely retained in the car seat by seating the child with the crotch strap positioned between their legs, placement of the shoulder straps over the child's shoulders, and connection of the shoulder strap couplings with the buckle of the crotch strap. The straps are then tightened, typically by pulling an adjustment strap that adjusts the free length of the shoulder straps.
For proper fit and performance, it is preferable that the shoulder harness belts extend from the seatback at about the position of the top of the child's shoulders when the child is normally seated in the car seat. In order to accommodate children of different sizes, and to allow continuing use of the child car seat and carrier as a child grows, it is known to provide for height adjustment allowing the position of the shoulder harness belts to be adjusted. Some height adjustment mechanisms provide multiple sets of slots through the seatback portion of the carrier shell at different heights, whereby the belts can be removed from one set of slots and re-threaded through another set of slots at the desired height, to match the size of the child. Other “no-rethread” height adjustment mechanisms provide for belt height adjustment using a repositionable carrier plate mounted to the seat shell.
Continued improvements in the field of child safety vehicle seats and carriers are sought, providing safe performance and ease of operation. Accordingly, it can be seen that needs exist for an improved vehicle safety seat and infant carrier. It is to the provision of an improved vehicle safety seat and infant carrier meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.